1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to time division multiple access (TDMA) burst receivers and more particularly to a TDMA burst receiver and a method for reliably detecting a preamble.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern two-way communication for cable television, hybrid fiber/coax systems, wireless local multipoint distribution systems, and microwave multipoint distribution systems use time division multiple access (TDMA) to carry short burst transmissions in an upstream direction (return path) from multiple subscribers to a headend receiver. In general the return path transmission characteristics, power level, and the clock offset from each subscriber will be different, thereby requiring the headend receiver to re-synchronize to each of the TDMA bursts. In order to minimize overhead time, it is desirable that the TDMA burst receiver be capable of reliably recognizing and synchronizing the preamble in as short a time as possible.
Existing TDMA burst receivers recognize and synchronize to a TDMA burst by correlating a preamble received at the beginning of the burst to an internal representation of the preamble stored in the TDMA burst receiver. A complication in the recognition and synchronization of the preamble is that a high power level of the TDMA burst transmission may cause the TDMA receiver to mistake a sidelobe peak of the autocorrelation of the preamble for the main peak. A further complication is that message data from the subscriber may have the same or nearly the same symbol pattern as the preamble. Yet a further complication is that narrowband noise or ingress may partially mask or emulate the TDMA burst transmission or be so large that its correlation to the preamble is as great as the main peak. A traditional solution to these complexities is to use a long preamble sequence of a few hundred symbols or more. However, such a long preamble sequence increases the time overhead of a system and is uneconomical for a system having data messages of less than a few thousand symbols.